Sex and the sequel

Sex and the sequel – WIN a copy of the soundtrack

The Manhattan fashionistas are back in Sex and the City 2. Source: HWT Image Library

SARAH Jessica Parker radiates the satisfaction that comes with having another huge hit in the making.

While her outing with Hugh Grant in Did You Hear About the Morgans? made little noise at the box office, expectations are off the radar for the second coming of Carrie and friends in Sex and the City 2.

“We’ve all been looking forward to this moment and getting back to the lives of our characters,’’ Parker says. “We don’t always have time to see each other as much as we would like and it was wonderful to be back together again. This film is more about how marriage evolves and how men’s and women’s roles are changing. But it’s fun – it’s more of a romp!’’

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While the first $456 million-grossing 2008 SATC movie struck a sadder note with fans, Parker promises the sequel has plenty of laughs as well as serious commentary about men and women.

The foursome of Parker, Cynthia Nixon, Kim Cattrall and Kristin Davis will need to have worked hard to top the first big-screen spinoff of the hit TV series, which far exceeded industry expectations.

In SATC2 Parker is joined by her fellow Manhattan fashionistas as well as by screen husband Chris Noth as Mr Big.

She is hopeful the new film leaves audiences with more awareness about Carrie and the gang.

“People don’t realise, but we’re all quite different from our characters,’’ Parker says.

“Kim is the exact opposite of Samantha, actually. She’s very quiet. She’s very private. She is very proprietary about information. Samantha is an exhibitionist and thinks it’s funny to be shocking and will gladly divulge intimate details.

“Kim does not share those qualities at all.’’

While Parker is reluctant to divulge too many details about Carrie and SATC2 before its release, Davis (Charlotte) offers an important insight that even though more of Parker is finding its way into Carrie’s personality, audiences should not make the mistake of confusing Parker with Carrie.

“Women, when first watching the (TV) show, watching Sarah Jessica playing Carrie, would simply assume in a very flattering manner that she’s this typical, very erudite New Yorker-type of personality,’’ Davis says.

“And then when Sarah Jessica got pregnant people would come up to me all the time and say, ‘Oh, she totally changed, she’s had a child, and she’s totally different’.

“And I would say to people, ‘No, she’s always been incredibly maternal’. That is the real Sarah Jessica. But that wasn’t necessarily always a Carrie quality.

“But what is really interesting about how Carrie has changed is that as time has gone on, some of Sarah Jessica’s maternal qualities have seeped into Carrie in a really lovely way.’’

In the meantime, while SATC2 promises to enlighten audiences about the progress of Carrie’s marriage to Big, Parker continues to make her home in New York City with husband, actor Matthew Broderick, their eight-year-old son James Wilkie and their twin girls, Tabitha and Marion, who they had via a surrogate mother.

While juggling work and family has its stresses – Parker, who turned 45 in March, still manages to look fabulous and youthful.

“I have it easy compared to millions of working mothers,’’ Parker says.

“My life is very manageable and I’m very fortunate. I can work and organise my life very easily because I have help in terms of someone I can love and trust to look after our son and help me when I need it.

“That’s very comforting and makes you feel more secure about motherhood and work in general.”

Still, Parker admits to worrying about not being able to do everything as well as she would like to.

“I want to be the best mother possible and be there for James and the girls as much as I can, but I still want to enjoy my work and not feel torn. But it’s the same dilemma for every woman with a career and I’m very happy with my choices and with my life.’’

SATC certainly offers the kind of escapism that’s not normally available to the average mother.

Shooting the sequel took the gals far from the urban jungle of New York to the Middle East and on to Morocco.

The sequel has Cattrall’s Samantha Jones taking her friends to Abu Dhabi, where her movie star ex has shot an action film.

The trailer to the film reveals Carrie finds temptation in the desert when she runs into her own ex from the TV series, Aidan (John Corbett).

The trailer also sets up crises for Samantha struggling to stay youthful, Davis’s Charlotte York feeling overwhelmed by her children and Nixon’s
Miranda Hobbes wishing for time away from work to be a stay-at-home mother.

Sex and the City 2 opens on June 2.

WHERE HAVE THEY BEEN?

KRISTIN DAVIS
Launched a short-lived foray into fashion shortly after the first SATC movie with a clothing line in partnership with the Belk chain of department stores. Has also made only one movie, the dire romantic comedy Couples Retreat, in which she played Jon Favreau’s wife.

Kristen on Charlotte:
“I share Charlotte’s enthusiasm. The writers would take little things I would say, the same with all four of us – they use things that we would do, but obviously circumstantially what she’s interested in is different.

CYNTHIA NIXON
Has continued to be a vocal activist for gay rights and same-sex marriage (she has been in a relationship with education activist Christine Marinoni for six years) and breast cancer awareness (she was diagnosed in 2006). Also appeared in the indie comedy drama Lymelife, with Alec Baldwin, and the Quentin Crisp biopic An Englishman in New York, opposite John Hurt.

Cynthia on Miranda:
“Originally, I thought, I love this character but I really have nothing in common with her other than feeling, ‘Oh, we’re smart girls’.” By the time the series ended it seemed like we had met halfway. We saw Miranda creep out of her shell and soften and become a mother and believe in love.”

KIM CATTRALL

Had a busy couple of years since the first SATC film, with voice roles on The Simpsons and Producing Parker, plus an appearance on the family history TV show Who Do You Think You Are? She also appeared in a critically acclaimed West End production of Noel Coward’s Private Lives and will soon be seen on Australian screens with Pierce Brosnan and Ewan McGregor in Roman Polanski’s The Ghost Writer.

Kim on Samantha:
“The females with crushes (on Samantha) start at age 11 and end in their 80s. But it has nothing to do with me. It’s projected on to a fantasy world that doesn’t really exist. It’s a super-warped reality.”